Invader Zim Review/Transcript
GIR: 'I'm gonna sing the Doom song now! Doom, doom, doom, doom, doom, doom, doom, doom- ''(Time card reads: 6 months later...) 'GIR: '''Dooom...doom-doom-doom-doom-doom-doom! '''Zim: '''GIR... ''(Intro) We're all in agreement that ''Invader Zim ''is one of the greatest Western cartoons ever made, right? I don't really need to get too deep into this one. We can all agree that it's one of the most amazing ones out there. I am exaggerating ''slightly'', but oh boy, this one. There are cult classics out there; shows, movies, games, or whatever that didn't hit mainstream popularity, but really take off with a niche audience. And then there's Invader Zim. I do 'really '''like this show. Now it's not my favorite Nicktoon of all time, in fact I might have to put it as a close third behind ''Hey Arnold!, but I have to admit that it ''really is a good cartoon. Although it's not flawless and it's ''certainly ''not for everyone. Invader Zim ''is about an alien invader named Zim, from the planet Irken. Well, "invader" is kind of an exaggeration. Zim is a joke among his peers, and so they send him to a no-name planet that no one in their right mind would ever care about: some podunk backwater place called Earth. And honestly, I kinda really mean that. One thing you have to understand about ''Zim ''is that it's a dark show, possibly the darkest out of all of the Nicktoons. And I'm not just talking about in a black comedy kind of way, although yes that is the...most common style of comedy within this show. I'm talking about the tone as a whole. Earth in Invader Zim is a pretty bleak place. It takes place in the future, or the future of 2001, and it's clear that they didn't have the most 'optimistic 'view of it. The entire Earth in ''Invader Zim ''seems to be some sort of "incidental dystopia." No one seems to be ranting about government oppression, or...or forced to do things against their will, but you get all of the other signs of something is 'seriously 'gone wrong. There's a lot of heavy, industrial imagery. People have a flagrant disregard towards one another. There's a '''common' sentiment of apathy. And MacMeaties reign supreme as the highest calling some people can achieve. Ms. Bitters: '*giving Zim a collar* If you leave school grounds, it will explode. '''Dib: '''You know Zim- And there is a lot of meat in this show. I don't exactly know why, but it does help set the tone. The people in this show don't just...like meat. They give it away for Valentine's Day. This might sound depressing, but the show goes ''so over-the-top with just how 'wrong '''everything is, that it doubles back around and becomes hilarious. Black comedy is a genre that's ''very ''hard to get right. By definition, ''everything has to go wrong for everyone, and there really can't be any happy endings. This can turn out really bad for you, as a writer, if all of a sudden, people start caring too much about the successes and failures of your characters. ''Invader Zim ''doesn't really have that problem, not to say that you don't care about Zim's struggles. Let me put it this way: he wants to take over the Earth. This isn't a goal that you can usually get behind. At the same time though, the world is so crapsack, that at some point, you kinda want Zim to take control. Then you realize whether or not Zim succeeds, Earth is probably going to be a crapsack no matter what. And then there's Dib. Dib is the only one who knows that Zim is an alien, and he's made it his mission to track him down and save the Earth. The problem is that Dib is crazy. Yeah, I-I don't know if anyone else has noticed this but, Dib is actually...kinda crazy. He was always been obsessed with aliens and goes above and beyond in order to try and catch Zim in the act. It's...really understandable that no one wants to hear his shit. He just had the fortune to be right about the one of the million aliens he's ranted about. And you don't feel bad about Dib constantly getting beaten up and failing to stop Zim, because number one, Zim is absolutely never going to succeed in conquering the Earth, and two, Dib could stop at any time he wanted. This is the '''perfect dynamic for a cartoon like this. They wanna do something and they hold on no matter how much it hurts. But most importantly, they can let go at any time they'd like. Their pain and humiliation comes more from their refusal to let go than from anything else. It's honestly the same with Zim. Both the characters are really similar. Zim could just accept the failure that he is and go back to Irken, but he's not prepared to do that, no matter how much shit he has to walk through. But this kind of dynamic would only make good characters on its own, I think. What elevates Invader Zim ''to a higher level is its performance. '''Zim: '''The Tallest were wise to choose me. This planet won't know what hit it after I've learned its weaknesses. Ow! These lenses are all scratchy! One of the main reasons that ''Invader Zim ''is so damn memorable, is because of the voice acting. Richard Steven Horvitz plays Zim, and this is probably his best role. He's usually giving out these...weird inflections and playing these off-of-the-wall characters, but here he cranks that up to eleven. Half the time I think the guy swallowed a theremin. He-he is perfect for this show. Every single line that Zim says is just memorable. It's as cheesy as an alien B-movie from the fifties, and-and that's...why it's just so great. Speaking of memorable lines though, you 'cannot 'ignore GIR. '''GIR: '''GIR, reporting for duty. '''Zim: '''GIR? What does the 'G' stand for? '''GIR: '''I ''don't ''know! Yeah, I-I bet you were waiting for me to mention this guy. GIR is the standout character in a show full of standout characters. His character ''type ''isn't unique, stupid characters are a dime a dozen, and a stupid robot isn't that much farther, but GIR is a master of comedic timing. And what comes out of his head seems to be almost the perfect gag for any scenario. Speaking of voice acting, the only voice of the show that I'm not too keen on is Dib's. Dib's voice sounds like it has a '''filter over it in some places. Dib: '''You just got here! Don't let him trick you. I know what I'm talking about! And there it is! Sitting...right...there! And that was a little bit hard to listen to at times. The actual performance and the actual voice acting is good, it's nowhere near as good as Zim's, but like I've said before, you can't beat the best. However, one thing about this show that I was constantly blown away by ''was the animation''. This show has ''beautiful animation. Well, "beautiful" is the wrong word in Invader Zim. A lot of what is animated is gross and disgusting, like I said, meat is a constant theme in many of the episodes, and it's about a bug-eyed alien trying to conquer the world. But the visuals Invader Zim ''have this unique style that's yet to be matched. '''Everything' enhances the tone, from the color palette that exudes this dark and creepy atmosphere, to GIR's dog costume with its dopey expression, giving a nice contrast and showing that it's not as serious as it looks or should be. The most impressive thing, though, is the CGI blending. Invader Zim ''uses a lot of computer-generated imagery, and it looks 'really 'good. Like an extension of the 2D animation. And for the time, that is really surprising. Around this time when shows used CGI, they tended to do it to make things "stand out" and just, show off their...impressive technology. Well, impressive for the time. Think King Ramses from ''Courage. The idea was usually to make CGI as conspicuous as possible. If you didn't know that the thing was CGI, there was no point to it. Except here, the CGI, while, still using simple shapes uh, like soldiers or boxes, is stylized like the rest of the show so it fits in very nicely. If you're not attune to it, you probably won't even notice it. It'll just look like the scenes had better-than-usual depth and perspective [Caption: The very thick outlines also help with that.]. Of course in the end that may have been the show's downfall. While Invader Zim ''was on the air for about five years, it only had two seasons. Actually, that sounds a little bit more optimistic than...what the reality is. ''Invader Zim ''only had 27 episodes. 40 episodes were ordered for the second season, but 21 were left in various states of unfinished, and during that time, ''Zim ''was thrown 'all 'around the schedule. The common consensus is that the show was deemed "too dark" for Nickelodeon. As much as I like dunking on Nickelodeon, I-I don't think that would have been the whole reason for this show's cancellation and mistreatment. ''As Told by Ginger ''was airing roughly at the same time and it went into all kinds of dark topics, with a much more serious tone. ''Invader Zim's darkness was largely tongue-in-cheek. Not to mention that, the show did air over the course of five years. If disturbing content was the reason this show's cancellation, then I'd have to imagine that it would have been pulled off the air a lot sooner. Naw, if I had to pin the blame on anything at all, it would've been the fact that this show could not have been cheap or easy to produce. The CGI animation is plentiful, and it's everywhere. And it's not like Jimmy Neutron ''where the animation was relatively simple either. Or maybe it's the fact that a convicted murderer claimed, the episode "Dark Harvest" inspired their crimes in 2005, roughly the same time this show was cancelled. The world may never know! No, I'm not joking. '''Sleep tight. 'Announcer: '''Next on Nickelodeon, it's- ''(Shows clip of introduction to Action League Now! the Series) (No end credits music this time) Category:Nick-o-Rama Category:Transcripts